Tool Builder Overview
Working as a Tool Builder
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a tool builder. For example, did you know that they make an average of $20.68 an hour? That's $43,012 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 1% and produce 5,400 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Tool Builder Do
There are certain skills that many tool builders have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed analytical skills, manual dexterity and math skills and computer application experience.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a tool builder, we found that a lot of resumes listed 16.4% of tool builders included hand tools, while 10.6% of resumes included shop equipment, and 7.7% of resumes included jig. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
How To Become a Tool Builder
If you're interested in becoming a tool builder, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 19.8% of tool builders have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 5.5% of tool builders have master's degrees. Even though some tool builders have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a tool builder. When we researched the most common majors for a tool builder, we found that they most commonly earn high school diploma degrees or bachelor's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on tool builder resumes include associate degree degrees or master's degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a tool builder. In fact, many tool builder jobs require experience in a role such as machine builder. Meanwhile, many tool builders also have previous career experience in roles such as machinist or fixture builder.
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Tool Builder Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a tool builder can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as field service technician, progress to a title such as service manager and then eventually end up with the title plant manager.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Tool Builder
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Nextaff Machine Tool Builder 2 Machine Tool Builder 2 | Nextaff Nextaff | 08/29/2020 08/29/2020 | $41,74008/29/2020 $41,740 |
Spherion Tool Builder Tool Builder | Spherion Spherion | 06/04/2019 06/04/2019 | $39,65306/04/2019 $39,653 |
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Top Skills For a Tool Builder
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 16.4% of tool builders listed hand tools on their resume, but soft skills such as analytical skills and manual dexterity are important as well.
- Hand Tools, 16.4%
- Shop Equipment, 10.6%
- Jig, 7.7%
- Engineering Department, 7.2%
- Aerospace, 6.2%
- Other Skills, 51.9% See All Tool Builder Skills